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than the church of the city of Rome, and the Popes in their subscriptions, or superscriptions, took simply the quality of bishops of Rome," &c. Traité de la puissance Ecclésiastique, &c. page 551.

SECT. V.―That the Church of Christ must be apostolical, by a succession of her pastors and a lawful mission derived from the apostles.

How do you prove this?

1st. Because only those who can derive their lineage from the apostles are the heirs of the apostles; and consequently they alone can claim a right to the scriptures, to the administration of the sacraments, or any share in the pastoral ministry: it is their proper inheritance, which they have received from the apostles, and the apostles from Christ. "As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you." John xx. 21.

2dly. Because Christ promised to the apostles and their successors, "that he would be with them always even to the end of the world,” Matt. xxviii. 20, and that the Holy Ghost, "the spirit of truth, should abide with them for ever," John xiv. 16, 17.

To this section, as but little of scripture could be found by the Pope bearing upon the question, we need quote but little of the sacred volume, to shew the misapplication of the two or three lines referred to.

The first of these lines is spoken by Christ to his apostles, at the time he breathed upon, and imparted to them the Holy Ghost. Secondly, that CHRIST said he would be with them to the end of the world; and thirdly, that "the Spirit of Truth should abide with them for ever." Upon these grounds the Pope claims the inheritance of the apostles, his or his Church's right thereto being derived in a direct lineage from them. Of this "inheritance" we will say but few words. If the Pope or his bishops will shew us any portion of scripture which will warrant their title in opposition to the texts we have already quoted, in refutation of so palpable an assumption, it will be quite time enough to admit it. When CHRIST breathed upon the apostles, it was at Jerusalem, nor in the scriptures do we find any allusion to

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Rome or its Pope; but we are taught by these scriptures, that the ministers who serve God are God's ministers. to the "lineage derived from the apostles," we scarcely understand the allusion*. Popes are elected, and have been since the time of Alexander III.†, from cardinals when they do not fight for their infallibility; and we have always seen, according to history, that the strongest interest of either kind has obtained it. Who but the strongest party was of this lineage," when Popes were slaying each other? or when in the sixth œcumenical, or general, council, Pope Honorius was solemnly condemned for heresy, A. D. 680? But as the 14th and 16th verses of John, chap. xvi. are quoted, why, we ask, was the intermediate verse omitted? It consists but of seven words, is spoken by CHRIST himself, and runs thus: if you love me keep my commandments. But the Pope and Dr. Challoner both seem to have thought that this sentence was not the most applicable to prove the "inheritance" of Popery from the apostles.

*It is evident that the Salic law is unnecessary to preserve Popish infallibility, since Popesses, or lady-popes, are no interruption to this "direct lineage ;" and as great ability has been evinced under the Papal and petticoat-government of Pope Joan, when the tiara graced her fair brow, it shews a great want of gallantry in her successors, that she was not sainted pro forma. Leo IVth dying A. D. 855, Joan a learned lady (admitted on all sides to have possessed much genius and dexterity) made her best curtsey from the Papal chair, in which she contrived to sit unmolested for two years, (a much longer period than many others have kept it) when Benedict the Third became the luminary of the "direct lineage." The ecclesiastical writers of the five succeeding ages never dreamed of denying the fact, so notorious in itself; and which could not in anywise derogate from the dignity or credibility of an "infallible” church. Thus the fact was handed down to posterity, by the same pens that recorded other pontificates, and was undisputed until the commencement of the Lutheran Reformation. Then it was that the Popish writers first determined to insist upon it, that all their predecessors who had written of Pope Joan were all wrongthat Joan was not a woman, or if she was a woman, she could not have reigned; whilst others thought it best to insist that (notwithstanding the account is transmitted to us by their own infallible guides) there never was such a person at all. Those who would peruse the authorities (readily believed by Papists themselves in other points) in proof of the correctness of the above statement, are referred to the Exercitatio de Papa Femina, tom. ii. of Spanheim, in which they are collected; or L'Enfant's translation of it into French.

In the third council of the Lateran held at Rome, A. D. 1179, in which it was decreed that the election of a Roman pontiff should be vested in the cardinals only, two thirds of whose number should decide it. This decree still exists,

SECT. VI.-That Catholics, and not Protestants, are the true
Church of Christ.

How do you prove that the Catholic Church, in communion with Rome, is the true Church of Christ, rather than Protestants or other sectaries.

From what has been already said in the foregoing sections; for, 1st. The true Church of Christ can be no other than that which has always had a visible being in the world ever since Christ's time, as we have seen, Sect. I. She was founded by Christ himself, with the express promise "that the gates of hell should not prevail against her." Matt. xvi. 18. "She is the kingdom of Christ, which shall never be destroyed." Dan. ii. 44. Therefore the true Church of Christ can be no other than the Catholic, which alone has always had a visible being in the world ever since Christ's time. Not the Protestant, nor any other modern sect, which only came into the world since the year 1500. For those who came into the world 1500 years after Christ, came into the world 1500 years too late to be the religion or Church of Christ.

2ndly, The true Church of Christ, in virtue of the promises both of the Old and New Testament, was to continue pure and holy in her doctrine and terms of communion in all ages, even to the end of the world, as we have seen, Sect. III., and, consequently, could never stand in need of a Protestant reformation: therefore that which was of old the true Church of Christ must still be so, and it is in vain to seek for the true church among any of the sects of pretenders to reformation; because they all build upon a wrong foundation, that is, upon the supposition that the Church of Christ was for many ages gone astray.

3dly, The true Church of Christ must be Catholic, or Universal; she must not only be the church of all ages, but also more or less 'the church of all nations, as we have seen, Sect. IV. She must be Apostolical, by a succession and mission derived from the apostles, as we have also seen, Sect. V. Now these characters cannot agree to any of our modern sects, but only to the old religion, which alone is the church of all ages, and more or less of all nations; and which descends in an uninterrupted succession, continued in the same communion, from the apostles down to these our days. Therefore the old religion alone is the true Church of Christ, which can be but one, and in one communion, as we have seen, Sect. II.

As Protestants*, we protest against the pitiful shifts of

*This appellation, now generally applied to all Christians who deny the superstitious doctrines of Popery, &c. originated thus :- In the year 1526, Popery had determined, as Mosheim expresses it, "to suppress, by force, a doctrine which she was incapable of overturning by argument;" against which suppression the Lutherans guarded themselves in the best way they could, when the first diet of Spire (a

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Popery throughout the whole of her doctrines, in assuming, self-evidently, false premises, from which Papists put forth the most absolute conclusions without one single scriptural proof to support them: we know, however, that design can supply its place by sophistry alone, and of which we think it cannot be deemed unfair (or, what is of more importance, it cannot be shown untrue) to assert that the present section is a tolerably good specimen of the rest.

That the Church of Christ is Catholic we have already admitted, but repeat our protest against the Romish Church so calling herself. We, nevertheless, are taught that it is our duty" to live in charity with all men;" nor do we envy those their hearts and minds who have introduced into the volume they profanely call " Gospel," a prohibition against the purest doctrines of CHRIST*. That the Popish Church is the true Church of Christ, we are told, is proved by a line of Scripture previously quoted, and misquoted here; because "her," we suppose, was deemed more expressive than "it" of the propriety of its application, our readers may themselves judge. Of the quotation from Daniel ii. 44, "She is the kingdom of Christ, which shall never be destroyed," we will only make one remark-there is no sUCH line to be found in the book of Danielt; and as the Pope could not

city of Germany) assembled, in which the Confederate Princes insisted upon their right of managing their own ecclesiastical affairs. During the three ensuing years the Reformation proceeded with rapid strides, when, A.D. 1529, a second diet was held at Spire, where the Princes entered into a solemn protest against the superstitions of the Romish Church; and hence the denomination of Protestant, adopted by all classes of Christians who wish to be distinguished as not being in a state of mental subserviency to Popes.

* “The speeches, preachings, and writings of PROTESTANTS are pestiferous, and creeping, like a cancer; and, therefore, never to be heard by CHRISTIAN MEN."Rhemish Test. On 1 Tim. ch. iii. 12. Republished in 1816, under the direction of the Irish Jesuits, approved by Dr. Troy and all the Irish prelates.

Speaking of his own Church, the Pope quotes Daniel, as above. Daniel is interpreting the dream of Nebuchadnezzar-the verse referred to (44) runs thus:"And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break to pieces, and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.' When Pius IVth composed his "Grounds of Faith," the Reformation had already caused Popery to crack; that she has since been broken to pieces and become the scoff of more enlightened ages, look now at her contemptible assumptions, without

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find any other scriptural passage to twist to his purpose in the present section, without wasting a single comment on the text as he has quoted it, we recommend a comparison of it and that which he has manufactured, as above. We will now proceed in our reply to his own unscriptural assertions.

First, then, if a new religion came into the world 1500* years, or 15 years, after CHRIST, in itself contrary to that which was taught by our Saviour, in both cases it came into the world "too late to be the religion of the Church of Christ;" and as the doctrines of Popery, viz. supremacy, infallibility, transubstantiation, worship of images, indulgences, &c. &c. &c. were not in existence until several ages after the resurrection, and (as we shall prove) they were first opposed to Christianity by proud and inordinately-wicked men, we should be really at a loss to conceive how the reformation of abuses, as in the Protestant Church, could give offence, did we not know that their exposure, in all cases, creates implacable enemies in the perpetrators of them.

"The true Church of Christ" will ever be the Christian Church most pure in her doctrines; let the Roman Catholics read the Scriptures, and they will readily discover that, in

the means of drawing a sword, as formerly, to enforce them; whilst her curses have recoiled upon herself, and induce her greatest enemies to pity her wretched insanity. * This allusion of the Pope is in excellent keeping with his other perversions of sacred and profane history. It is here implied that Christianity, as practised in the Reformed Church, was unheard of until the year 1500; but was neither he nor Dr. Challoner aware that it was taught and professed in Britain during the second century? The two great seminaries of pure Christian learning were at Bangor and Caerlion, in North and South Wales. Bishops Stillingfleet, Burgess, &c. have published authorities in proof of St. Paul planting the Gospel in this country; but, as the Scriptures do not speak of it (a), we will merely observe that, when, in the sixth century, Gregory the First sent Augustine over to couvert the Saxons, he (Augustine) made demands on the Abbot of Bangor on behalf of the See of Rome, which the said Abbot thought too arrogant, and replied accordingly, that he owed the Bishop of Rome no submission, being himself under the authority of the Bishop of Caerlion upon Uske (b). All the Episcopal Churches were in communion with each other until the assumptions of Popery dissolved it. Tertullian says, Britannorum inaccessa Romanis loca, Christo Vero subdita."-adversus Judæos, c. 7.

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(a) St. Paul says, the Gospel was in all the world, although he does not parti cularize Britain, which was a part of the (then) known world.-See Coloss. i. 6. (b) See Spelman's Concilia, page 108.-Tertullian also says, in his apology to the magistrates of the Emperor Severus (and which, according to Mosheim, was A.D. 198), that Britain had (then) accepted Christianity.

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